Silas Bissell (April 27, 1942 – June 15, 2002) was an American activist. He joined The Weatherman movement for a brief time before going underground after planting a bomb at the University of Washington's ROTC building. Bissell was arrested after 17 years of being underground and served 18 months in jail. Early life Silas Trim Bissell was born April 27, 1942. Bissell’s father, Wadsworth, was the grandson of the founder of the Bissell carpet sweeper company. Silas’ mother, Hillary Nelle Rarden, was a Marxist-civil rights activist and encouraged her son to be the same. Bissell went to the University of Michigan, where he was awarded three Hopwood Awards for poetry. He fell in love with Judith Emily Siff, a New Yorker and they later married. He was arrested during his senior year of high school for taking part in a sit-in. Bissell graduated with a bachelor's degree in English literature in 1964 and then went to Syracuse University and graduated with a master's degree in creative writing in 1965. When Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated and activists stormed Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Silas and Judith joined a Seattle draft resistance group. They were soon drawn to the Weatherman organization. Weatherman Because they were a married couple in a movement that perceived the practice of monogamy as bourgeois, the Bissells were challenged by the members of Weatherman to prove their dedication. Their chance came on January 17, 1970, after being asked to place a bomb at the University of Washington. They placed a home-made bomb under the steps of the University’s ROTC building. It did not go off because the Bissells made mistakes with the wiring. They were captured by the campus police almost immediately, making them think they had been framed by the members of Weatherman. Although it has been reported that Bissell was a member of the Weatherman, his widow Ruth disputes the allegation, though she reports that Bissell repeatedly said, "I would have if they'd have taken me." Underground The Bissells posted the $50,000 in bonds and were planning to face the court in Seattle until, Bissell claims, Weatherman Mark Rudd told them to go underground. Traveling by bus and train, they relocated from Seattle to San Francisco, but were now shunned by fellow Weathermen. They ended up in Boston, where the mounting pressures of hiding finally ate away at